The new anchor base was established at Ca Lu, a few miles down Route 9 to the east. The Americans wanted a military presence there to block the infiltration of enemy forces from Laos, to provide a base for launching patrols into Laos to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and to serve as a western anchor for defense along the DMZ. The following tables were generated from the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files, which is current as of April 29, 2008.The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. The NVA 304th Division’s history notes that on “9 July 1968, the liberation flag was waving from the flag pole at Ta Con [Khe Sanh] airfield.” On July 13, 1968, Ho Chi Minh sent a message to the soldiers of the Route 9–Khe Sanh Front affirming “our victory at Khe Sanh.”. On March 6, two U.S. Air Force C-123 cargo airplanes departed Da Nang Air Base en route to Khe Sanh. His estimated total of civilian deaths is 587,000. Vietnam War, Casualties Returned Alive, 1962-1979. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. Operation Pegasus, begun the day after Scotland ended, lasted until April 15. The lists are based on the "home of record - state" data provided by the serviceman or woman upon last entrance into military service. As early as 1962, the U.S. Military Command–Vietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. They too were left out of the official Khe Sanh casualty count. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. When an enemy rocket-propelled grenade killed 2nd Lt. Randall Yeary and Corporal Richard John, although these Marines died before the beginning of the siege, their deaths were included in the official statistics. Mobile combat operations continued against the North Vietnamese. The Operation Scotland tactical area of responsibility (TAOR) was limited to the area around Khe Sanh along Route 9 in western Quang Tri province. Name Rank & Service Date of Death Location of Name; John S. Alling Jr. Sp. In 1966 the Marines built a base adjacent to the Army position, and organized their combat activities around named operations. In 1967, as American casualties in the Vietnam War mounted, and no end to the conflict seemed to be in sight, anti-war demonstrations that had been escalating for several years took on a new size and tone. Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. America paid a terrible price for its involvement in the Vietnam War - nearly 60,000 killed-in-action, over 150,000 wounded, and some 1,600 missing. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. RG 112 Office of the Surgeon General 2. 1,200 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Tay Vinh massacre between February 12 – March 17, 1966. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. has the names listed in chronological order by date of loss. Edith Piaf, internationally famous French cabaret singer, best remembered for her songs "La Vie en rose" and "Non, je ne regrette rein.". The Vietnam War was a long, deadly struggle that took place from 1954 to 1975 between North Vietnam and South Vietnam The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished. Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter, producer; best known for his protest songs of the 1960s. From Terry Fincher, one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. Casualties were mounting and it seemed that this war, already in its fourth year, might go on forever. 380 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Go Dai massacre on February 26, 1966. Home; Departments; Veterans' Service Agency; Memorials; Vietnam War Casualties; A; A; Vietnam War Casualties Veterans from Cayuga County, New York Who Gave Their Lives in Vietnam. Army deaths at FOB-3, however, were not included in the official statistics either. Both sides have published official histories of the battle, and while these histories agree the fighting took place at Khe Sanh, they disagree on virtually every other aspect of it. The Marines withdrew all salvageable material and destroyed everything else. Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain. For example, I served with a Marine heavy mortar battery at Khe Sanh during the siege. Maurice White, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire; member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame. The report, originally classified as secret, noted that intelligence from many sources indicated conclusively that the North Vietnamese had planned a massive ground attack against the base. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. Enemy artillery rounds slammed into the runway. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. By the middle of January 1968, some 6,000 Marines and Army troops occupied the Khe Sanh Combat Base and its surrounding positions. ... How Do I; Search. Memorial pages honoring Vietnam War casualties, listed by their last names. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. On July 11, the Marines finally left Khe Sanh. Try our genealogy search engine. As journalist Robert Pisor pointed out in his 1982 book, The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh, no other battle of the entire war produced a better body count or kill ratio than that claimed by the Americans at Khe Sanh. Operation Scotland II continued until the end of the year, resulting in the deaths of 72 more Marines. Setting out from Ca Lu, 10 miles east of Khe Sanh, Pegasus opened the highway, linked up with the Marines at Khe Sanh, and engaged NVA in the surrounding area. The next operations were named Crockett and Ardmore. Vietnam War We have 105 Illinois Counties listed in our archive. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. Many American casualties were caused by the 10,908 rounds of rockets, artillery and mortars the North Vietnamese fired into the base and hill positions. The National Archives and Records Administration prepared these Vietnam War casualty lists by creating extracts from the military casualty data files in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Record Group 330). The NVA used Hill 881 North to launch 122mm rockets at the Marines during the siege. Vietnam veterans lead a march against the Vietnam War, Washington D.C. (1967). MN: ... Vietnam War. The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.”. While climbing, the C-123 was struck by several bursts of heavy machine gun and recoilless rifle fire. According to this history, originally classified as secret, the battle deaths for all major NVA units participating in the entire Highway 9–. MN: 07-03-1968: Vietnam: Marines: 6: Frederic Gustave Agather . The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. These alphabetical indexes are for your convenience but do not represent the order of names on the Wall. ... 1968 02 11 Y PINSONNAULT RICHARD NORMA: NAVY: PO3: … U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968 In late January, 1968, during the lunar new year (or “Tet”) holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam.The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. See a list of Cayuga Vietnam War Veterans. Vietnam-Era Military Personnel Records, 1960's - 1970's . This fighting was heavy, involving South Vietnamese militia as well as U.S. Army MACV advisers and Marines attached to a Combined Action Company platoon. NVA casualties were more than 200. Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. General Disclaimer - This is a private sector project developed by. - U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA - - DEATHS BY CALENDAR YEAR - - Year of death may either be actual or based on a presumptive finding of death- - (originally declared missing and later declared dead).-AS OF MARCH 31, 1997-Since 1997 93 names have been added to the memorial that are not show in the stats below. The Vietnam-Era Military Personnel Records is a huge archive that holds as many as 4,638,952 records in its massive collection. Numbers certainly do not tell the whole story - or all of them - but they certainly paint a picture of lives lost and families devastated. According to Ray Stubbe, a U.S. Navy chaplain during the siege and since then the most significant Khe Sanh  historian, the 205 figure is taken only from the records of the 26th Marine Regiment. Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. The Johnson administration was no longer capable of convincing anybody that Vietnam War was a major defeat for the communists. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. The deadliest week of the Vietnam War for the USA was during the Tet Offensive specifically February 11–17, 1968, during which period 543 Americans were killed in action, and 2547 were wounded. Its mission was to destroy the Special Forces and their Vietnamese allies and to ambush any reinforcements coming from Khe Sanh. About two hours later, an NVA artillery barrage scored a hit on the main ammunition dump at Khe Sanh Combat Base, killing Lance Corp. Jerry Stenberg and other Marines. Next, see what the Vietnam War looked like for those who fought it in this CBS News footage that captured a battle in action in the jungles of Vietnam near Cambodia in March 1970: After viewing the Vietnam War photos above, have a look at two of the era's most iconic images: "Napalm Girl" and the Saigon execution . On January 14, Marines from Company B, 3rd Recon Battalion, were moving up the north slope of Hill 881 North, a few miles northwest of Khe Sanh Combat Base. Because of washed-out bridges and heavy enemy activity, however, the only way for Americans to get to Khe Sanh was by helicopter or airplane. MN: 05-12-1968: Vietnam: Army: 4: Edwin Arthur Ackerman Jr. MN: 02-19-1969: Vietnam: Army: 5: Arnold Alvin Ades . Only those killed in action during Operation Scotland, which began on November 1, 1967, and ended on March 31, 1968, were included in the official casualty count. The NVA surrounded Khe Sanh in an attempt to force the Marines to break out of their fighting positions, which would make it easier to engage and destroy them. A U.S. Marine watches over bodies awaiting transport near Khe Sanh. This time period does not particularly coincide with the fighting; rather, it dates from before the siege began and terminates before the siege (and the fighting) ended. The attack was to have been supported by armor and artillery. Mary Ashton Livermore, a temperance worker, women's rights activist, lecturer, and writer. Tap this upper portion to remove the keypad. But Pisor also pointed out that “205 is a completely false number.” One had to meet certain criteria before being officially considered KIA at Khe Sanh. 1968 became the deadliest year of the war for US forces with 16,592 soldiers killed. Marines stayed in the area, conducting operations to recover the bodies of Marines killed previously. The year 1968 saw major developments in the Vietnam War.The military operations started with an attack on a US base by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) on January 1, ending a truce declared by the Pope and agreed upon by all sides. The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist party and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982. He suggests that another 222,000 civilians were counted as military deaths by the U.S. in compiling its "body count." On June 19, 1968, another operation began at Khe Sanh, Operation Charlie, the final evacuation and destruction of the Khe Sanh Combat Base. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. This article was written by Peter Brush and originally published in the June 2007 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Selective Service System announced a new draft call for 48,000 men, the second largest of the war. Khe Sanh Front from January 20 until July 20, 1968, totaled 2,469. RG 334 Records of Interservice Agencies 4. The fighting was heavy. Strategically, however, the withdrawal meant little. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled “Victory at Khe Sanh,” reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: “We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. U.S. MILITARY FATAL CASUALTIES OF THE VIETNAM WAR FOR HOME-STATE-OF-RECORD: MASSACHUSETTS Prepared by the National Archives and Records Administration From the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Files. U.S. reconnaissance forces continued to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Hernandez was killed. Gold Star Casualty Search. 2,800-6,000 civilians were killed by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in the Hue Massacre throughout February, 1968. Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. The official statistics yield a KIA ratio of between 50:1 and 75:1 of North Vietnamese to U.S. military deaths. Early in the war (1965 and 1966) when blacks made up about 11 percent of our Vietnam force, black casualties soared to more than 20 percent of the total. The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. By comparison, according to another Army general, a 10:1 ratio was considered average and 25:1 was considered very good. Since the war's end in 1975, Burrows' pictures have been revered for their explicit depictions of both the humanity and the inhumanity of Vietnam as well as a brutal reminder of the true cost of war. You can scroll down to see the names of casualties listed under their official city. But only by checking my service record while writing this article did it become evident that I had participated in all three operations. OR To shorten the name list, enter 2 or more letters of any part of a name in the box below. Unlike the Marines killed in the same place in January, since Operation Scotland had ended, the four Lima Company Marines who died in this attack on Hill 881 North were excluded from the official statistics. The deaths of U.S. Air Force personnel, estimated between five and 20, are also omitted. Khe Sanh is a village located near the Laotian border and just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam. U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019 Stubbe examined the command chronologies of the 1st and 2nd battalions, 26th Marines, plus the after-action reports of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines; 1st Battalion, 9th Marines; 1st Battalion, 13th Marines; and more than one dozen other units, all present at Khe Sanh under 26th Marine operational control. Operation Pegasus casualties included 59 U.S. Army and 51 Marine Corps dead. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. That afternoon, as a rescue force was dispatched to the village, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Seymoe and other soldiers died when their helicopter was attacked. This is the battle’s end date from the North Vietnamese perspective. And by the time U.S. planes began regular bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the government’s assertion that it was fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Com… Gaynor, now 70, spent more than a year in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968, taking photographs as he went. Ray Stubbe has published a translation of the North Vietnamese history of the siege at Khe Sanh. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an “Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle” for General Westmoreland. On Easter Sunday, April 14, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (3/26), assaulted Hill 881 North in order to clear the enemy firing positions. U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Vietnam War for Pima County, Arizona. RG 338 Records of U.S. Army Commands Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. Mar 29, 2018 ... Vietnam, February 1968. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. Historian Ronald Spector, in the book After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam, noted that American casualties in the 10 weeks after the start of Operation Pegasus were more than twice those officially reported during the siege. Westmoreland echoed this judgment in his memoirs, and, using exactly the same figures, concluded that the North Vietnamese had suffered a most damaging and one-sided defeat. This database contains information about awards and decorations of honor awarded to U.S. and allied foreign military personnel during the Vietnam War. The NVA’s main command post was located in Laos, at Sar Lit. It is difficult to support the claim of an overwhelming American victory at Khe Sanh based solely on the ratios derived from the official casualty count. Ten more Marines and 89 NVA died during this period. US Marine Corps four-star general James L. Jones Jr.; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (2003–2006); Commandant of the Marine Corps (1999–2003); National Security Advisor (2009–2010). The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army.Both sides have published official histories of the battle, and while these histories agree the fighting took place at Khe Sanh, they disagree on virtually every other aspect of it. On June 28, a Communist spokesman claimed the Americans had been forced to retreat and that Khe Sanh was the “gravest tactical and strategic defeat” for the U.S. in the war. Since the Marines on board were not yet officially attached to the 26th Marine Regiment, their deaths were not included in the official Khe Sanh count, nor were the several other deaths associated with aircraft crashes. In an unconventional war without conventional frontlines, statistics became the most critical measure of progress. The Marine Corps casualty reporting system was based on named operations and not geographic location. For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! Here are some of the most powerful pictures taken by Larry Burrows during his coverage of the Vietnam War. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. At 1530 hours the first C-123, with 44 passengers and a crew of five, began to land. Biography of United States Marine Corps Group Burial: Vietnam War Casualties Of 6 June 1968. North Vietnamese troops launched the Tet Offensive in January 1968, which was successful against South Vietnam and the U.S. It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel in many instances as many individuals were part-time guerrillas or impressed laborer… Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. If a battle tallied a sufficiently favorable body count ratio, American commanders declared victory, as they did after Khe Sanh. Since the official duration of the battle ends even earlier than the termination of the siege itself, a wider definition of the Khe Sanh battlefield to include Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II also seems reasonable. In fact, neither side won a resounding victory. Senior Marine Corps General Victor Krulak agreed, noting on May 13 that the Marines had defeated the North Vietnamese and “won the battle of Khe Sanh.” Over time, these KIA figures have been accepted by historians. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. These combined sources report a total of 354 KIA. At about 0640 hours the NVA 7th Battalion, 66th Regiment, 304th Division, attacked the Huong Hoa District headquarters in Khe Sanh village. Rather than being a few hundred or a thousand college students … Beginning in October 1967, the Communists greatly increased their forces in the Khe Sanh area to total two infantry divisions, two artillery regiments and an armored regiment. By early 1967, the Marine position was reinforced to regimental strength. Seven miles west of Khe Sanh on Route 9, and about halfway to the Laotian border, sat the U.S. Army Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. Indeed, had enemy forces not been at Khe Sanh, they could have joined the NVA and VC who occupied Hue, a much more important strategic target. The official figure of 205 KIA only represents Marine deaths in the Operation Scotland TAOR—that is, Marines killed in proximity to the Khe Sanh Combat Base during the period from November 1, 1967, to March 31, 1968. 9 Haunting and Rare Pictures of the Vietnam War. The base was officially closed on July 5. American Veterans Center 75th D-Day Congressional Reception. For them, the battle started when the North Vietnamese attacks began in January. The distinctions between Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II, while important from the command perspective, were not necessarily apparent to individual Marines. By nearly every metric, the Vietnam War was, in the common sense of the word, a war.The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. Besieged, Khe Sanh could only be resupplied by air. U.S. Marines in Vietnam, The Defining Year, 1968 like the preceding volumes in this series is largely based upon the holdings of the Marine Corps Historical Center. On July 10, Pfc Robert Hernandez of Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, was manning an M-60 machine gun position when it took a direct hit from NVA mortars. Operation Pegasus forces, however, were highly mobile and did not attack en masse down Route 9 far enough west of Khe Sanh for the NVA, by then dispersed, to implement their plan. Did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh, the battle started the. 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